Article April 16, 2012 Issue

Man up to real manhood

TMC Youth's website, time4thinkers.com, recently featured this article as a blog.

Gordon Myers

A shirtless model on a billboard. A bumbling loser in a sitcom. A callous businessman, or the suave guy who gets all the girls. If you ask the media, this is what manhood looks like in the 21st century: cool, powerful, and ruthless, or stupid, hapless, and helpless.

You might roll your eyes and say, Yeah, but the media stereotypes women, too. What’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is that stereotypes of any kind limit and undermine. And we’re seeing the effects of that: While women’s education rates continue to improve, each year in the United States we see a disproportionate decrease in the percentage of boys who graduate from high school and attend college. Also in the US, young boys are four times more likely to be prescribed “sit still!” medications such as Ritalin and Adderall. And worst of all, world suicide rates showcase a whopping 80 to 90 percent of all suicides are committed by men.

While I’m not blaming the media for the problems men are facing, these statistics have definitely made me take notice. I don’t want to stand by as either gender is forced into a certain box or made to feel unworthy.

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